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Introduction
Have you ever had your beliefs proven wrong? Not petty beliefs like the one that tells you the grass is always greener on the neighbour’s lawn, but more like listening to Copernicus tell you that you – we, us – aren’t at the center of the universe. Something else is. That’s what you feel like when you fire up the 6.2-litre crossplane V8 of the Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG. Put the key in the ignition slot, turn it to the ‘on’ position. Watch the needles of the analog dials perform a dainty sweep right across their faces: clockwise, counterclockwise. Wait a beat. There are no start/stop button shenanigans here, turn the key further, hear that engine burst into life, watch everyone around out of the corner of your eyes – they’ve stopped doing whatever it is they’re doing; pumping gas, drinking tea, administering CPR, whatever; and are listening to the offbeat burble of that mighty engine. As you pull out of the parking lot, you know that that engine is the center of the universe. And you are controlling it with every twitch of your right foot.

Interior reeks of quality and makes you feel right at home.

Interior
With the top up, you have to fold yourself into the driver’s seat. It is really very low, so thankfully the buttons that power the adjustments are on the door. Even the steering wheel adjustments are made with the help of a little stalk and electric motors. It is cosy in here, despite the length of the car – the result of sandwiching a major portion of the mass (including the engine and gearbox) between the axles to aid weight distribution. Once inside, you have to give up thoughts of maximum visibility and adjust yourself for maximum seating comfort. The view out is brilliant by supercar standards – in fact, we could see more in the SL’s mirrors than we could in the mirrors of the M-Class that accompanied it! There theoretically is place for two more people on the rear bench, but only an agoraphobic Queen Anne would want to spend any time in the back – it’s best reserved for the golf clubs or weekend bags. There are buttons for everything – to fold the roof down or put it up, to adjust the mirrors, even to switch the gearbox’s shifting patterns, but there’s no start/stop button for the engine. We prefer doing it the traditional way, so we like it.
The clocks have an analog speedometer and tachometer, but with an LCD at the bottom that displays information with white LCD crystals backlit by purple. If left in manual mode, they turn red and exhort you to shift up once the engine nears the redline – a neat feature.
The interior of our test car was a shade of pink, but it wasn’t tasteless at all. It would probably manage to carry off a colour combination that Govinda’s costume designer would approve of with great dignity. The Harmann Kadon sound system sounds great, but we didn’t leave it on for more than two minutes, because we were so enchanted by the music emanating from the quad exhaust outlets. Merc’s COMAND system is present in the car, which drastically reduces the number of buttons required to operate everything from the seat heaters to the fans in the headrest that blow warm air on to the back of your neck.
Boot space isn’t much, especially with the top down, but we’re not going to complain about it – this isn’t a practical car, and if it’s boot space you need, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

6.2 litres, 525bhp and mountains of torque are available from the handcrafted V8

Engine
In this age of lower displacement, turbocharging and better fuel efficiency, the SL63 has moved its displacement up from a supercharged 5.5-litre V8 in the SL55 AMG to a naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8 for the SL63 AMG. The new engine’s name is a little misleading, but it is named ‘63’ in honour of the 6.3-litre V8s that went into the 300 and 600 sedans. It is a little less effortless compared to the old SL55, but you also reap the rewards of working it harder. It is redlined at 7000rpm, but carries on till 7200rpm before the safety systems cut in. Please note, it requires 98-octane fuel, so owners would do well to carry around a bucket of octane booster around with them. We do get 97-octane fuel at around 70 bucks a litre at today’s fuel prices, but they’re available only at the heart of metros. Out on the highway, the best you’ll be able to do is fuel with additives, which is what we were stuck with. We used a branded fuel that advertised additives, but the same octane rating as regular unleaded. So no doubt we weren’t getting the full 525bhp from the engine, yet managed to nail 0-100kph in 6 seconds.
Each engine is a work of art assembled by hand in Affalterbach by a single person. Our heartfelt thanks go to Herr Philipp Weibel, whose baby was the engine that powered MH14 TCF 71. The crossplane V8 sounds like a refined muscle car, which is exactly what it is, and when you rev the engine, the car rocks on its springs, giving you a hint of what’s possible should you choose to pin your right foot to the floor. The exhaust noise is something even Thor would be proud of – we downshifted every time we entered a tunnel, and that’s all it took for the fast lane to clear. There was no need to blow the horn or flash our headlamps. The engine moves the car smartly off the line, but bogs down initially with the traction control on. The surge of torque increases linearly, and when you pass 4000rpm, all hell breaks loose. You really need to have your wits about you, because it doesn’t matter what gear you’re in, the SL thunders to the redline almost quicker than the brain can process it.

Drivetrain
Merc’s new seven-speeder graces the SL63, and it has four modes on offer: Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus and Manual. Comfort makes each ratio slur from one to another, sport speeds it up, sport plus even blips the throttle to rev-match on downshifts, and manual gives you full control of the box, via the gearshift lever or the paddles behind the wheel.

Fuel economy
We achieved 5kpl during testing, where we drive in pedal-to-the-metal mode. However, this also was on regular fuel with additives, so we’ll reserve comment on this front, unless we can spend a few days with the car under normal conditions and recommended fuel.

Ride surprisingly compliant for a supercar; handling mind-bendingly superlative

Ride and Handling, Steering
The SL63 is surprisingly easy to manage over bumps for a supercar. The road out from the factory is a state highway that is frequented by heavy truck traffic. It also passes through a crowded town at a point, complete with speed-breakers. Of course, you do have to crawl over the speed bumps, but not once did the SL’s underbody touch anything.
The ride at low speed is stiff, as expected, but what surprised us is the fact that it wasn’t back-breakingly stiff. It soaked up just enough of the road’s imperfections so as to take the edge of them: we always knew what was going on under the wheels, but never were we uncomfortably aware of it. Up speeds and press the little button that shifts the dampers from ‘comfort’ to ‘sport’, and now you can feel every single thing that goes on underneath. It still isn’t painful, mind – but you can feel everything that’s happening at every corner. The heavy steering starts feeling perfectly weighted, and you’ll be making manouevres at silly speeds simply because you can. The car feels utterly planted at speeds above 200kph as well - not surprising, because with that kind of power output and drag coefficient, you can reasonably expect an unrestricted example to top out at over 320kph.

This car IS the Formula One safety car, so safety is priority. However, the ESP can be turned off for some fun.

Braking
Like with everything else, the brakes need a firm foot, but this only adds to the level you can modulate them. They offer the driver all the options possible, from trickling to a stop to a panic stop. The co-driver that was noting down data that we were gathering got himself a sore left shoulder from the seat-belt pre-tensioning itself during our braking test, which has never happened before. It may be a heavy car, but it stops like it hit a brick wall.

Tyres
Michelin supplies the 255/35 ZR19s for the fronts and 285/30 ZR19s for the rear of this car: they’ve got the highest possible speed rating for tyres. They have epic grip, and you won’t be bothered by the noise they make with the roof up. With the roof down, you’ll be tuned in to the engine’s note, so you will never be bothered by the noise they make.

Safety
ABS, EBD, ESP, a number of airbags… This is a supercar capable of incredible speeds, and since it’s a Mercedes as well, you have all the protection you can possibly get. An interesting bit of trivia is that this very car is the safety car at Formula One races.

Those three letters say it all, really. Nothing else needs to be said.

If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it. To put things into perspective, it’s more expensive than the Audi R8 4.2 FSI, at Rs 1.7 crore, ex-showroom Delhi, and almost on par with the Lamborghini Gallardo.
If we were given a choice, though, we’d pick the SL – Mercedes India has the biggest service network, and the brand does carry a lot of weight. Most of all, though, we’d pick it for the deep-chested roar that begins life as a muted snarl at 2000rpm, only to rearrange your inner ear at 7000rpm…